Iphigenia and the Furies finds modern telling for ancient tale

By Karen Fricker Theatre Critic Sat., Jan. 12, 2019 Iphigenia and the Furies By Ho Ka Kei, directed by Jonathan Seinen. Until Jan. 20 at Aki Studio, 585 Dundas St. E. nativeearth.ca or 416-531-1402 This adventurous, cheeky, moving production filters ancient Greece through the cultural politics and linguistic register of today’s Canada. The source text is Euripides’ Iphigenia among the Taurians, which finds the title character living in Tauris (what we call Crimea), having avoided sacrifice at her father Agamemnon’s hands. The quid pro quo is that she now serves the goddess Artemis, who saved her, by killing any foreigners who land on Taurian shores. Article Continued Below In taking this story on for the indie company Saga Collectif, playwright Ho Ka Kei (the pen name of actor Jeff Ho) grappled with the question of where he and his collaborators, mostly queer folks and people of colour, could find a place in it. Under Jonathan Seinen’s thoughtful direction, the production that results feels like simultaneous exploration and celebration of the relevance that they have discovered in the material. The first step toward making this tale their own is the snappy, colloquial way the characters speak. Iphigenia (Virgilia Griffith) kicks things off by narrating the backstory about “Daddy Aggy,” her mother “Clem” (Clytemnestra), and what it’s like to be a princess-turned-priestess who “should be dead, technically, but hey … miracles.” Following on from her tear-the-house-down performance in Harlem Duet late last year, Griffith here voices suppressed frustration that comes through as… [Read full story]